Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2
Origins, Growth, and Geographies
of the Global Internet
To appreciate the complexity, implications, and geography of the internet, it is
vital to understand where it came from and how it came to be. Toward this end,
this chapter sketches the broad outlines of the world's internet in several stages. It
opens with an overview of the seminal technologies that make the internet
possible, fiber optics and satellites, which together comprise the infrastructure of
cyberspace. Second it traces some of the highlights of the internet's history, from
its origins with the U.S. military to its explosive growth and commercialization
today. In the process, it charts the uneven geographies of growth over time and
space. The third section addresses the digital divide, or sociospatial inequalities in
internet usage, which are found to one extent or another across the planet. Finally,
the chapter concludes with a brief regional survey of internet usage in various
world regions to highly the spatially uneven character of its deployment and
implications.
2.1 Fiber Optic Networks and Satellites
Two technologies—satellites and fiber optic lines—form the primary technologies
deployed by the global telecommunications industry, including the internet.
Although they overlap to a great extent, satellite and fiber optics carriers exhibit
market segmentation. Economically, both reflect the typical cost structure of
telecommunications, i.e., high fixed costs and barriers to entry and low marginal
costs. However, firms offering these services serve overlapping, but slightly
different markets: satellites overwhelmingly dominate mass media transmission,
although fiber carriers have recently begun to invade this market (e.g., cable
television). Fiber carriers are heavily favored by large corporations for data
transmissions and by financial institutions for electronic funds transfer systems, in
part because of the higher degrees of security and redundancy this medium offers.
The world's network of satellites and earth stations comprise a critical, often
overlooked, element in the global telecommunications infrastructure. Since the late
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